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Long-term monoculture of watermelon results in inhibited growth and decreased crop yields, possibly because of imbalance in microbial ecology caused by accumulation of the pathogen in soil. This results in serious problems in the economics of watermelon production. We investigated the build-up of Fusarium in soil under watermelon cultivation and changes over 3 yr of fallow in a microcosm. We focused on changes in the microbial community of Fusarium-infected soil, including the diversity of the microfloral species composition, and species abundance. Long-term monoculture of watermelon leads to changes in microbial diversity and community structure. The microbes most readily cultured from infested soil were suppressed by watermelon wilt pathogen Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum (FON). Of 52 isolated and identified culturable microbes, 83.3% of bacteria, 85.7% of actinomycetes, 31.6% of fungi and 20.0% of Fusarium sp. were inhibited by FON on bioassay plates. Prior to fallowing, infested soil was a transformed 'fungus-type' soil. After 3 yr of fallow, the infested soil had remediated naturally, and soil microbial diversity recovered considerably. Abundance of dominant bacterial populations was increased by 118-177%, actinomycetes, fungi and FON were decreased by 23-32, 33-37 and 50%, respectively.

In the paper ''Droplet nucleation: Physically-based parameterizations and comparative evaluation'' by Steven J. Ghan et al.